My Hormones and I Have Never Agreed on Anything

Blogger and mental-health advocate Katherine Stone battles it out with her own body.

By Katherine Stone

Photograph: Karen Walrond

It stinks to be biochemically challenged. However, it helps to know you have those challenges and to be prepared to take them on, instead of being taken by surprise over and over again. I finally understand that this is something I will always be dealing with, and I know to tell all and any of my medical providers about my history of hormonal difficulties. My dalliances with depression and anxiety aren’t my fault, and I know they can be managed. Best of all, I will be able to tell my daughter about all this at the start of what is likely to be her own battle with hormones.

Katherine Stone, 41, lives in Atlanta with her husband and two children. She writes about postpartum depression and women's mental health issues on her award-winning blog, Postpartum Progress.

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Aside from the obsessive-compulsive disorder after your pregnancy, I have experienced ALL of the things you have. I did battle post-partum depression. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who made me go to a doctor and get some help. Thanks you so much for being brave enough to share your story. A question, however - do your doctors take you seriously? I mean, aside from the one who is prescribing your meds? I often feel as if doctors I go to roll their eyes a little when I mention the drugs I take. If they had to live with me, they wouldn't. Being hormonally challenged is a pain but you are right that we are lucky to be able to address it and watch for it in our daughters. I am certain that my mother suffered from many of these issues but never sought treatment. Thanks again.